As I recently reported, I’m back into the sales game baby! I’ve been on the phone non-stop, schmoozing and talking to potential customers - has it been draining? Yes. Have I loved every minute? Absolutely! Most of the business our company has done in the past has been through consumer sales and this time it’s all corporate sales. Let me just say that the process is entirely different.

The 3 rules I live by, whether I’m selling something or trying to get a vendor relationship going are:

1. LISTEN

This is one thing I’ve had to work on for sure - I have a habit of wanting to talk and control the conversation. However, the best sales people are great listeners. They control the flow of the conversation through short remarks, but spend most of the time listening.

A sales call = therapy sessions.

You’ll find that people love talking about themselves, their success, their problems - everything. If you just give them a bit of time to talk, they’ll sell themselves. They will tell you all of their pressure points that you can then “strategically” hit in your “pitch.”

2. Don’t Negate or Argue

The easiest lure to interrupt someone and take over a conversation (also lose a sale) is to negate someone when they’re talking. You will always hear something that you don’t agree with or even a statement about your product that is completely false - DO NOT INTERRUPT OR ARGUE.

The best thing to do at this point is make a note of it and LET THE PERSON FINISH. When they finally stop, actually ask them “OK, mr. buyer, I hear you loud and clear and you brought up some great concerns, was there anything else you were concerned about?”

Most likely, the person will either continue and give you even MORE pressure points to write down or they will really say “Nope, I’m done” - wait until they say they are done for you to start your part. But, still when you start - NEVER tell the person they are wrong about anything they said.

Rather…position yourself as saying “Mr. Buyer, I completely understand where you’re coming from, actually, if I was in your position, I would feel exactly the same way - you’re definitely not alone in feeling that way. Let me explain how this feature works…”

Note how I never used words like “But” or anything else that would imply I’m negating their point. You can actually explain your view without ever negating someone. The best way to convince someone that they’re wrong is to let THEM decide they were wrong. You are just there to explain the feature in a way that resolves their concern.

Be understanding, agree and wait your turn.

3. Get As Many “Yes’s” As Possible

The trick to closing a sale is to get the prospect to say yes as much as possible. One of the easiest way to get a yes is to simply listen, hear them and then make a statement that you know they would definitely agree with…here’s an example:

“Wouldn’t you agree that it’s pretty tough to find great candidates for this job you’re trying to fill?” Once you get the prospect rolling on yes’s, you can start to slip in discussions of features of your service that would make this problem that much easier to solve.

As you’re explaining, you’re build a relationship, you’re getting the prospect excited and comfortable.

So, remember…LISTEN, Don’t Argue and get the prospect to say yes.

Follow these 3 rules and you’ll find it much easier to sell someone!

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Tags: rules to selling, sales, Selling

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.